The Dene language (sometimes called Dené Dháh or Dene Zhatıé) is spoken in the south-western
North-West Territories, north-western Alberta and north-eastern British
Columbia. There are four “Slavey” dialects/languages: South Slavey, Hare,
Mountain, and Bear Lake. Usually they are divided into two orthographical
groups: South Slavey and North Slavey (a combination of the other three).
However, each community could be said to have its own dialect.

The division of Slavey dialects is based largely on the way each one
pronounces the old Proto-Athapaskan sounds *dz *ts *ts’ *s and *z.

Syllabics Information

Demographics

The
2006 Canadian
Census (2001 figures in parentheses) indicates 2,310 (2,120) South Slavey speakers, to which would have to be added
a portion of the 11,130 (10,585) who are reported as Dene speakers. According to Howe and
Cook, there are 3,850 speakers of all Slavey dialects.

Notes

In Alberta, nasal vowels are written with an ‹n›: [ã] is ‹an›. In the nwt nasal vowels are marked
with an ogonek: ‹ą›.

To distinguish the sounds /an/ from /ãn/, Alberta Slavey uses an underline
accent to “de-nasalise” the vowel: /a/ + /n/ is ‹aṉ› — /ã/ is
‹an›.

High tone is indicated by an acute accent ‹á›. Low tone is unmarked.

In the NWT, the glottal stop ‹ɂ› has tall capital and short lowercase forms.

Phonetically /l/ and /y/ are classified in the resonants row, but in the
language, /l/ is the voiced partner of /ł/, and /y/ is the voiced
counterpart of /sh/. There is some variation between /y/ and /zh/.

The
sounds /tł/ and /tł’/ can also be found written ‹tl› and ‹tl’›.

In the NWT, the ‹ı› is undotted

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